Method of making gas-mantles.



F. G. FLINT.

METHOD OF MAKING GAS MANTLES.

' APPLICATION FILED APB.21, 1911.

Patented Feb. 24, 1914.

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By ATTORNEY.

COLUMBIA PLANOGIAPN CO, WASHINGTON D. O.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK C. FLINT, F CHICOPEE FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO KNIT GOODS SPECIALTY COMPANY, A PARTNERSHIP COMPOSED OF FRED E. PATTERSON AND FRANK C. FLINT, OF CHICOPEE FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHODOF MAKING GAS-MANTLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented F eb. 24, 1914.

Application filed April 21, 1911. Serial No. 622,461.

, To (all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANK C. FLlN'I, a citizen of the United States of America, rcsiding at Chicopee Falls, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Gas-Mantles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the mamifacturc of gas mantles. In the manufacture of these mantles the general practice is to use a knitted fabric fashioned into a bag-like form which, when treated and baked in the customary manner, becomes the well known incandescent element when subjected to the gas flame. These mantles were at one time made of tubular knitted fabric cut to proper length, one end being bunched and tied together and the other end fastened to a molded base which supports the mantle when in use. Later practice evolved the knitting of the mantles in the form of an open ended bag, the sides of the bag-being fashioned on a knitting machine very much as stockings are heeled. By this method the bunched up end of the mantle was done away with. In manufacturing the mantles from these knitted bags it has been found very dillicult to handle them when securing them to the molded base on which they are baked and on which they are subsequently supported, this difficulty arising from the fact that the knitted bags are very slazy and the mouths of which have no well defined form. After these bags have been dipped in the usual solution preparatory to subjecting them to the action of heatin the usual manner, the open mouths of the bags have to be gathered in by hand, as evenly as possible, and, by means of a binding cord, mounted on the usual support on which they are afterward used. This process is very costly because the work can only be done slowly, and it is a diflicult matter to train operatives to do it well. So great has been the disadvantage of manufacturing these mantles that it has greatly impaired the value of the otherwise valuable invention, whereby these knitted bags are produced, which invention is fully described and claimed in United States Letters Patent issued to Finch on November 5, 1907 numbered 870,229.

The present invention is clearly brought out in the accompanying drawings and is described and claimed in the specification accompanying the drawings.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows, in perspective, one of the knitted bags from which a mantle is made showing the irregular shaped open mouth of the bag. Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the bag having its mouth reduced to a predetermined diametcr and showing the borders of the mouth of the bag reinforced preparatory to the application thereto of the binding cord. Fig.

3 is a view of a part of the bag shown in Fig. 2 showing the application of the binding cord to the open mouth of the bag. Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken through the mouth of the bag on the line ls-4, Fig. 2. Fig. :3 is a perspective view of one of the supports on which the mantle is mounted.

This invention has, for its object, the improvement in the process of making these mantles, as briefly described above, whereby the irregularly formed loosely knitted border of the mouth of the bag may be reduced to a predetermined diameter and stiffened more or less whe eby it will maintain its circular form in the finished product and whereby it is adapted to be quickly and cheaply secured to its support, and whereby the application of the binding cord to the mouth of the bag is greatly facilitated. The preferred means whereby this result is accon'iplished is an ovcrseaming sewing machine adapted to this particular work.

Referring now to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows, in perspective, one of the bagS made under the patent above referred to. These bags are applied to a machine which gathers the border 6 uniformly to restrict the diameter of the mouth 0 of the bag to the desired circular form and diameter, as illustrated in Fig. 2. This gathered-in border of the bag is turned down upon itself, as shown in section in Fig. 4, to reinforce or stiffen the edge of the bag, and when so gathered is over-seamed by the machine to hold the edge in place,(Z indicating the thread with which it is sewed. hen the mouth of the bag has been so fashioned, as shown in Fig. 9., it is dipped, (prior to subjecting it to the baking operation) and then preparatory to mounting the same on its support (one of the supports being shown in Fi 5) the binding cord 0 is passed around the mouth of the bag under the threads d of the stitching preparatory to the attachment of the bag to the support j which is shown in Fig. 5.

It is quite obvious that there is a great advantage in the manufacture of these mantles in being able to supply the operative with the bag shown in Fig. 2 ready for mounting on its supports instead of the bag as shown in Fig. 1. And, furthermore, when the bags, as shown in Fig. 2, are mounted on the supports, the finished article shows the base of the bag to be neatly fitted to the support without any of the unsightly bunches of the material visible, as is the case when the bag as shown in Fig. 1 has to be gathered, and the binding cord applied thereto, and the bag tiedto its support, practically at one operation.

The process of making gas mantles consisting in knitting the mantle in the shape of a bag, the diameter'o'f the open end of which is greater than that of the body, then constricting the mouth of themantle to a predetermined form of less diameter than the knitted bag and forming the periphery of the mouth into a greater thickness than the body of the mantle-and making said constricted and thickened periphery of the mouth permanent by stitching, all while the mantle is independent from its support, and then in placing a cord upon the mantle, applying the mantle to its support and securing the cord.

FRANK G. FLINT. Witnesses:

K. I. CLEMoNs, HARRY W. BOWEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissionerof Patents, Washington, D. 0."? 

